I'm sure you already know all about Knight Rider, the 80s series starring David Hasselhoff and the cool high-tech car, K.I.T.T. The series ran on television for 4 years, and was followed by a reunion movie, Knight Rider 2000, in 1991. This year NBC relaunched the series under Executive Producer Gary Scott Thompson (Las Vegas). Universal released the season sets starting in 2004 and wrapped it by releasing two seasons in early 2006. Now they've packaged all 4 seasons into an attractive complete series set, but is it worth your money to upgrade? Read on...
The Packaging
It's hard to miss the distinctive Knight Rider packaging; a nice black box with silver, raised letters on it, and a red stripe at the bottom. A series of lights in the stripe move back and forth at the push of a button while the opening to the theme song plays. You'll press that button so many times you'll probably be worried about wearing the batteries out. The brilliant minds at Universal knew that would be a problem, which is why they created the package so you can change the batteries (3 AAAs), and even printed instructions on the removable paper on the back of the set. Someone was thinking!
The set opens by grabbing onto the little flap just above the red stripe, and opening it exposes the 12 double-slim cases containing the discs. Unfortunately the package takes up a lot more room on the shelf, and since it's slightly higher than a normal DVD case (due to the red stripe on the bottom), there's a chance it won't fit on your shelf. You can see in the picture below that it fits on one of my shelves, but not the lower shelf that currently contains the Knight Rider season sets.
The Material
You may recall that Knight Rider was released during Universal's evil DVD-18 days. Those discs had a very high failure rate, with problems often occurring at the end of the second episode on a side, or the start of the third. Universal has corrected the problem by using single-sided discs in the set. The 24 discs hold all 85 episodes, including some which are double-length. All the bonus material from the earlier season sets can also be found here, including the Knight Rider 2000 TV movie.
To Upgrade, or Not to Upgrade?
My initial reaction is "yes, upgrade." The single-sided DVDs used in the set are a huge plus, and the standard double-slim cases means you aren't going to risk scratching the discs every time you go to watch them. All the content from the season sets are there, though there's nothing new in the set.
This is a no-brainer for fans of the show that want the complete series, and don't already own the season sets. It's cheaper ($100 at Amazon) to buy this set than the season sets ($121 at Amazon), you don't lose out on any content, you don't get the dreaded double-sided discs, and you get a nice package. Fans who already own the season sets get an attractive package, and single-sided discs, which means you can actually watch the episodes without them stuttering and skipping.
Here's a shot of the set on my shelf:
BTW - I pressed the button about 20 times while writing this review. Make that 21.
